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MG TD TF 1500 - TD 4139 rebuild

Got the tub off and was pleasantly surprised on how well the frame has held up. Still will need some touch up, but the paint held up well.

http://www.dropbox.com/sh/d4py0ccbm6nfa36/AABmdUGXXQQQgmLZ3sv-yuBUa?dl=0

Today, I started doing the Nickel plating for the firewall plates. Made my own nickel plating solution.
Really easy.

Take distilled vinegar, add a pinch of salt and put two pieces of nickel (I bought this on ebay), one on the negative and one on the positive of a 12 volt battery charger. (I used a 1.5 amp charger) into the vinegar and let it work. Keep the alligator clips out of the solution. Takes about 3 hours and will turn a nice green color. Then you but a piece of nickel on the positive lead and the part to be plated on the negative lead of the 1.5 amp charger set to 6 volts. put it into the green solution. It will plate in a few minutes. I take it out about every 30 seconds and change the location of the negative lead so it plates evenly.

Here is the web I used for instructions. http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating/

Got the patent plate plated today. Will do the two others tomorrow and then do the black fill.



Bruce Cunha

Got two plates finished. I used a squeegee to apply black enamel paint.


Bruce Cunha

Nice!
L E D LaVerne

Rolled the frame out today for a good cleaning. Took the drive shaft off and will be ready to get the engine/trans out tomorrow.

Also finished the last ID plate. Came out ok. Actually pretty easy to do.



Bruce Cunha

You did a great job on those plates Bruce - way better than my effort. So I'm gunner have another go. Any tips on the method, paint consistency & the type of squeegee that you used? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I'm also very impressed with how the plates turned out. Congrats on a great job!

Kirk
Kirk Trigg

I used a 4" Smoothee Squeegee

http://www.xpel.com/product/4-black-smoothee/

It was a bit hard to get the paint to fully stick.

What I found worked is to let it dry, then with a soft clothe dipped in lacquer thinner, do a very fast wipe across the plate with very light pressure. Don't go back over the same area. If you don't get everything off, wait a few minutes to let the thinner dry and try again.

It was a bit hard to get the paint to fully stick. I cleaned the detente for the letters but still had a few areas that lifted.

Someone suggested painting prior to plating. I can't see why this would not work.
Bruce Cunha

Pulled the motor and transmission today. Tomorrow I unhook the springs and roll the differential out.


Bruce Cunha

Got the Differential out. A lot easier with the body off.

Had an interesting find. We have determined that the car was originally green. Found some areas on the wood behind the fuel tank and on the wood behind the firewall. Which is interesting because that means the body was either painted with the firewall off, or they attached the firewall, raised the car up and sprayed the underside of the firewall.

This car came to me as a dark green. but had silver and primer on the body. When we stripped a fender, we found a brown/bronze color, so we thought it may have been bronze originally. With the new finds, we are pretty sure it was green originally. We know there was some body damage as during the original restoration, we found an area of the tub that was leaded. Could be that the fender that we stripped had been replaced in that accident.

Today, I also found a tiny scrap of interior material tacked to the inside wood. It was covered in silver paint, but when I wiped it down, it came up green.

Of interest to the group is that this is material from the lower tub below the door. It is the later grained rexine. This is TD 4139 built Nov 1 1950. So the question on when MG changed from the smooth rexine to the grained rexine comes up. With this find, it is probably prior to Nov of 1950.



Bruce Cunha

Now have the frame totally stripped. The brake/clutch pedals and shaft came out easily. Shaft was well lubricated. Looks fine. No wear marks.

Only thing I found was one bolt on the Shock was not whitworth. When I got it off, I found there is a helicoil in the frame. Good news is it is a smaller thread than the 3/8 BSF. So I will be able to put in a 3/8 x 20 BSF helicoil and fix it.


Bruce Cunha

Bruce I ran into a problem after having all the hardware cad plated. After beginning assembly on dad’s car I came up short a bolt for the rear Girlings. I was not able to source a correct length bolt new through several venders. All were too short. Thankfully Dave DuBois had a spare he was willing to part with for me. You may try Hugh Pite as a source.

Cheers

Bill Chasser
TD-4834
W A Chasser

This thread was discussed between 19/02/2018 and 02/03/2018

MG TD TF 1500 index

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